Israel’s chief rabbi: I will ban cruel slaughter

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s chief rabbi said he will not certify beef as kosher if the animal was ritually slaughtered using cruel methods.

Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger reportedly said that by 2011 he will not certify meat from slaughterhouses that use the shackle-and-hoist method, Haaretz reported, citing Avi Blumenthal, assistant to the Ashkenazi chief rabbi. The method is used in nearly all South American kosher slaughterhouses, which provide about 80 percent of Israel’s kosher meat imports, the newspaper reported.

The shackle-and-hoist method is prohibited in Israel, as well as the United States and European Union.

Metzger’s announcement comes about a month after a hidden-camera video was disseminated online showing the shackle-and-hoist method being used in a slaughterhouse in Uruguay.